The outbreak occurred faster than anyone could have imagined. Families were separated by various blockades, hordes of the undead, water, sea, and land barriers... The Leblanc family was no exception. This was where they were during Day 1 of the Outbreak.

Mrs. Diane Leblanc

The night was long and irritating. She had just met in a summit of thirty two of the United States' most successful CEO's to discuss how their companies were 'going green.' With a folder filled with edited numbers and quality bullshit, she represented her company in a sterling light and presented it as one of the most environmentally conscious oil companies on the West Coast. That's when she got the call and the offer, a Chinese oil executive made some high price offers for a significant amount of shares in the company and she'd be damned before she passes up on that offer. Not only that, all she had to do was meet him in San Francisco tomorrow.

The only problem was that tomorrow was her daughters' graduation...

There was always the next graduation right? Grad school? That's much more important than her MENSA daughter getting presented a Ph.D in Bioengineering and an MA in Physics. After all, who put her in that school? Pascal? HAH! That's a fucking joke.

Dr. Pascal Leblanc

Plastic surgery was a good business, if you play it right. Dr. Leblanc had not been playing it right for a few decades however. Holed up in Arklay where he worked with a multi-partner quick-fix clinic, his job became more a matter of assembly line nose-jobs for sixteen year olds than the true art of crafting flesh into a beautiful arrangement. Still, he worked hard to supply his family with his income and while he couldn't match Diane's input into the family coffers. He was the only supplier of leisure money for Vera, though, even though she rarely requested it.

Pascal felt that because he sparingly had free time to pick her up from boarding school and spend time with her, maybe throwing money at her would be enough to show he cares. Not only that he wouldn't miss her graduation for the world. She was his pride and joy. He took a shot of whiskey after getting Isabella the secretary to leave the house by 8:00 PM this time, he had a big day tomorrow.

Vera Leblanc

Nerves, anxiety, and nausea hit Vera in droves the day before graduation. She left her mother a couple of messages to remind her that this graduation was going to happen in front of City Hall and that it would only take an hour. She also emphasized that the restaurant that dad was taking them to had an open bar. She figured that might be enough to lure her mother into being decent.

Her dad told her to invite any friends she had to go with them to the celebration. Her stomach knotted when she had to reply that they were all busy. In reality, they were all busy being non-existent. And to double the dose of reality, she had avoided making friends by pouring herself into her Bioengineering Ph.D and an attempted Ph.D in Physics which ended up a failure-- she only managed an MA. So in exchange for friends, boys, dating, and beers, she got a world-class education and a veritable array of social dysfunction and anxiety.

At least she'd see her parents tomorrow. That would be a comfort.

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